19-year-old says home hospice is a gift, not doom and gloom

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — At 19 years old, Cheyenne Sanger loves music. At Lincoln High School she was a self-admitted choir fanatic. She recently talked her family into a road trip to Los Angeles with a stop in Las Vegas.

“I went to the Raiders stadium with my brother because he’s a big Raiders fan, I went to the Cirque Du Soleil show,” said Cheyenne. “I had so much fun in Vegas, even though I’m too young to gamble, I had so much fun.”

State library saved from most program cuts

In L.A. she got the chance to see and meet the members of her favorite band, SadGirls. She even has a tattoo of one of their album covers.”It was Magical, it was like the best concert I’d ever been to,” Cheyenne said.Cheyenne may be 19, but she is wise beyond her years, especially when it comes to something doctors discovered when she was 11.”I have stage 4 Metastatic Osteosarcoma, which is bone cancer in my lungs and It hasn’t responded very well to treatment, so that’s so I’m on hospice, but not because, I’m not on hospice because its the end right now, I’m on hospice because just so I have that extra support,” she said. Cheyenne knows people often misunderstand what hospice is all about.

“It’s like doom and gloom and it’s like the end, there’s nothing they can do and that’s just not the case, she said.

She was able to go on her road trip because Sanford’s Home Hospice team, including Becky Jibben, helped plan the trip and organize support teams along the way if Cheyenne needed help.

The two have developed a special bond.

“She’s an amazing girl, she is a strong girl, she has been through a lot,” said Becky.

Both Becky and Cheyenne are grateful hospice care has brought them together.

“It’s not sad, it’s really the happy things that we get to do with people, said Becky.

“Like with Cheyenne, we get to help them experience things that maybe they have on their bucket list and things they wish they could do and just really make those last days, months, whatever they have left just make those the most special,” said Becky.

“There’s a few more trips I’d like to go on, there are still so many things I want to do. And I think that I’ll be able to do them with the help I get from the hospice,” said Cheyenne.

She knows cancer will eventually end her life, but she is determined to live the days she has left on her terms, and when she can, sing her songs and smile that beautiful smile.